India-related stocks, ETFs rally on Wall Street on election optimism

REUTERS - Wall Street investors are snapping up U.S.-listed shares of Indian companies and India-related exchange-traded funds on Monday as exit polls there predict the country's main opposition party - seen as more business friendly - would win general elections.

In ETFs, the Wisdom Tree India Earnings Fund is at its highest since March 2012. The fund, which is heavily overweight financials at 27 percent of its holdings, is beating the MSCI India Net Return USD Index over the past six months by around 10 percentage points, surging more than 22 percent. That also beats the S&P 500 by a wide margin too, with the U.S. benchmark up less than 5 percent in that run.

Two of EPI's big bank holdings are top movers among Indian American Depository Receipts. HDFC Bank is up 4 percent to a record and ICICI Bank is up 4.7 percent and at the highest since April 2011.

(Reporting by Angela Moon)